Nuclear Disaster: Don't Believe Their Lies

We have not been told the truth about the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan. My personal experience includes working in a nuclear power plant that came close to meltdown, and it wasn't one you've heard about, but the experience turned me into an anti-nuclear advocate.

by Heidi Stevenson

19 March 2011

On seeing the Japanese government's spokesperson, Yukio Edano, first announce the problems at TEPCO's Fukushima nuclear power plant, what he didn't say and his body language told me that the problem was serious, very serious. His words were intended to mislead, to give the impression that there was no significant risk and that everything was under control. It was, of course, an act. That act continues.

There has been little hard news about events in Fukushima over the last couple of days. They have sprayed and sprayed and sprayed water on reactors and spent fuel pools. They have even tried an outright publicity stunt with the helicopter water drops—though these seem to have smacked back at them as the spray and pray absurdity played on computer screens and televisions around the world. We've been treated to a half-assed apology by the plant's general manager, followed by crocodile tears as he left the podium. That was good for a bit of melodrama and redirection from the real issue: the status of the plant and how it would be managed.

What We've Been Told

We've heard bits and pieces intended to make us feel comfortable, as if it's all under control. A power line is being brought in. It'll be here by morning. Then, in the morning, we're told it'll be in place by evening. Or maybe tomorrow. Finally, it's in place—but it still needs to be wired to the reactors. Finally, it's wired to two reactors...but tomorrow we'll find out if there's enough of the reactor's wiring and machinery left to pump water for cooling. And, of course, we're left wondering why they didn't wire the reactor that's in the most trouble, instead opting for the two relatively calm ones.

And so it goes—as we're fed bits of new worrying info that we're not supposed to notice while obvious issues are ignored.

And that's just what Tepco's been doing to keep us in the dark. Governments are also not telling the truth. Obama tells us not to worry, but Americans are being evacuated from Japan, along with the citizens of virtually every other country. So-called nuclear experts let us know that there's no real risk, that this plant is so different from Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl, there's no chance of any real harm. They've been saying it from the beginning, but their specific proclamations keep proving to be false.

"Now don't you worry your little head about a thing. We'll take care of it."

But...

Of course, Japan has already trotted out an "expert", Professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu, who claimed that the contamination of food had been predicted and that it's unlikely to have a negative impact on health. And the government says that the water radiation doesn't exceed safe levels.

Are there any bridges out there for sale? Can we chat up the owner of London Bridge, now sitting in the middle of a desert? Maybe he'd be willing to buy the dreck being spooned out to the public.

What We Haven't Been Told

What really matters, though, is what we haven't been told. That's where we'll find the real tale. Let's take a look at the photo to the right.

This image was captured when reactor number 4 was in the midst of an explosive event located where the spent fuel rods are kept. What's left of reactor number 3 is on the left.

What happened to the vat that held number 3's spent fuel rods? It's blatantly obvious that the explosion that blew reactor number 3 apart destroyed whatever was supporting those rods. Where did the vat with those spare fuel rods end up? What kind of damage was sustained?

There hasn't been a whisper about damage to those spent fuel rods in reactor number 3. Does anyone know how much damage they or their vat have undergone?

Until yesterday, we weren't told that spent fuel was kept in all six of the reactors. We were only told about numbers 4, 5, and 6—the ones that weren't operational. Now we know that the spent fuel has been stored next to active reactors!

The Plant I Worked For

Instead of continuing the litany of things.we.have.not.been.told about the Japanese disaster, I'd like to write on a more personal level. You see, I have worked in a nuclear power generating station. As a computer programmer, I came to know many nuclear engineers. They're a mobile bunch, and they tended to be quite frank. Many of them had worked at Three-Mile Island, the plant that's generally known to have been a near disaster.

Without exception, every single engineer who had also worked at Three Mile Island stated that the one we were standing in was worse.

It was well known that there had been an accident at the plant where I worked. What wasn't well known was they it had nearly become a meltdown.

Considering the fact that my nuclear power plant experience took place nearly 25 years ago and that control over corporate malfeasance has only grown weaker in that time, there can be little doubt that nuclear power stations are now run with a madness that is virtually incomprehensible.

The amount of slop in designing and operating these plants is stunning. The insanity of management can be beyond comprehension. Here's an example from my experience:

The Fukushima Plant

We can all count our blessings that the plant I worked for is gone, but TEPCO's Fukushima plant is apparently no better run. As pointed out by Keith Harmon Snow in Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan, there are several "Nuclear Stupidities" at the Fukushima plant:

• Nuclear Stupidity No. 1: Square, not circular, reactor buildings, so they had to absorb the full shock of the tsunami straight on.
• Nuclear Stupidity No. 2: Building six reactors close together.
• Nuclear Stupidity No. 3: Building the reactors next to a shore with no tsunami protection.
• Nuclear Stupidity No. 4: Siting a nuclear facility in a major fault zone.
• Nuclear Stupidity No. 5: Assuming that the reactor could take "anything that nature threw at it".
• Nuclear Stupidity No. 6: Using the United States' technology and their assumptions about safety in the face of the US's obvious hubris in this arena.

Snow goes on to name other blatantly obvious stupidities, including suspending those spent fuel rods high above ground level and packing them so tightly.

As a child on roadtrips with my parents, whenever we saw a car being driven madly, my mother would say, "That's an accident looking for a place to happen." In the case of Tepco and Japan, they first decided where the accident would take place, and then they made every possible effort to assure it would happen.

Now, to add insult to injury, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are both saying the same thing, "It can't happen here." Wanna bet? My personal experience vouches for the fact that it's only a matter of time before it happens—again—in the US, and when you consider that US corporations are now running many of the plants in the UK, it can't be any better there. The only question is: In which country it will happen first?

As long as our governments and the controllers of nuclear power plants lie to us, we're on a collision course to a nuclear disaster. It's an accident that's found several places to happen.